thermal paste vs grease?

[Guest]

I am using a Silverado HSF on my 1.4 GHz Athlon, but I am having stability issues when I do things that require a lot of computing power for a long time, which I think are heat related, though a quick reboot and check of the bios shows the CPU temp. isn't above the mid 50's. I was wondering if this was due to the fact that the thermal contact stuff that came with the heat sink is grease rather than paste. It is white, and greasy, and doesn't harden or anything; it came in a little seringe. If this is not what I should be using, then what should I be using?

Also, I have been taking the HSF off every time I have to take my machine on the 4 hour car ride from school to my home, as was recomended by the manufacturer. I don't want to crack the die on my CPU by having a far-too-heavy heat sink bouncing around; is this really something I need to worry about? And after seeing Tom's article with the fried Athlon, I was also wondering if there is a better way to secure the heat sink to the mother board or something so that I could travel with it AND not need to worry about it falling off (the frequent re-mounting is not doing wonderful things to the little plastic stub the clip goes over). This would be really good if I need to use some thermal paste that doesn't allow me to remove the heat sink for traveling.

Thanks in advance,
-Ben

 

[Boondock_Saint]

Thermal grease/paste/goop are all the same thing. My Arctic Silver II came in a syringe, and that's referred to as thermal "paste."

Taking that HSF on and off repeatedly may lead to more problems that just leaving it on. It will also wear down the nubs on the socket. If you are worried about it staying on, I suggest getting the new Alpha PAL8045 or Swifttech MCX-462. Both mount using bolts next to the holes around the socket. Those suckers don't move AT ALL. I personally own the Swifttech MC-462-A, and have had no problems with it at all, moving it around quite often.

:tongue: Have you ever tried cooking an egg on your HSF? Tasty. :tongue:

 

[Guest]

Well, i have the Silverado but didnt use the paste that came with it, but used arctic silver, no heat problems at all.
About the moving around, i would suggest putting a children in the car sticker in your rear window and drive like there was, then you should be fine. And ofcourse carry the pc like a newborn baby and lay it on the side, mobo downwards.

 

[HonestJhon]

treat it LIKE it was a baby?
arent they babies??
i know i consider mine my baby, considering that i spent so much time and money getting it to the point that it is, all the way from my old pentium 90 to my athlon 900, it is like a growing child...so i carry it like it was one....except, it is not shaped like a kid, because that would get a bit creepy....i just treat it like it is a bomb or something...and i dont have any problems with the heatsink coming off, or moving...
and i used just that crappy stuff that came with my volcano 6cu, because i forgot to get some arctic silver at the store...and i forgot to get some when i was just there, and i kicked myself for that....DAMNIT!
next time...

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[HonestJhon]

oh yeah, and removing the heatsink, and then reapplying it would need a reapply of the thermal interface material, aka arctic silver, dow corning t-something, etc.
if you take the thing off, and put it back on, you might get little air bubble in there, and that is bad, and would decrease the efficeince of the heatsink.
so unless you want to reapply the thermal paste each time you go to a lan party or move the computer, then i would say dont worry, just dont shake the computer too much, and leave the heatsink on!

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-